About me

This blogname was derived from the novel The Secret Life Of Saeed The Pessoptimist by the Palestinian Israeli Emile Habiby: absurdism as weapon against the (ir)realities of daily life in Palestine/Israel. (The subtitle is from a book by Dutch author Renate Rubinstein. It could as well be my motto).
My real name is Martin (Maarten Jan) Hijmans. I've been covering the ME since 1977 and have been a correspondent in Cairo. I started my 'Abu Pessoptimist' blog in January 2009 out of anger during the onslaught in Gaza. The other one, The Pessoptmist, is meant to be a sister version in English. (En voor de Nederlandstaligen: ik wilde in november 2009 een tweede blog in het Engels beginnen en ontdekte te laat dat als je één account hebt, een profiel dan meteen ook voor allebei de blogs geldt. Vandaar dat het nu ineens in het Engels is... So sorry.)

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Thursday: four Palestinians killed, three Israelis wounded

Updated. Violence continued Christmas Eve day when a Palestinian was shot
dead during clashes with Israeli military forces in the Qalandiya refugee camp, the fourth to be killed in the occupied West Bank within
hours. Three Palestinians were shot dead earlier Thursday after carrying out separate attacks that left three Israelis injured.An
Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that Israeli forces had entered
the Qalandiya refugee camp in order to arrest suspects involved in an
attack earlier in the day.The forces opened fire when they
were “assaulted by a violent mob” that included gunmen and Palestinians
throwing explosive devices, Molotov cocktails, and stones, the
spokesperson said.
Locals identified the Palestinian killed as 23-year-old Bilal Zayed. Hours
before clashes erupted, another Qalandiya refugee camp resident was
killed when he rammed his vehicle into Israeli soldiers posted near the
illegal Geva Benyamin settlement, the Israeli army told Ma’an. Israeli forces opened fire and killed the
driver, identified by locals as Wisam Abu Ghwaila, 22. One Israeli
soldier was "very lightly wounded" in the attack, the spokesperson
added.Eyad Jamal Issa Ideis, 25, was also shot dead
Thursday after attempting to stab Israeli soldiers with a screwdriver at
the Ari military checkpoint near Hebron. The attack
attempt took place around an hour after a Palestinian stabbed and
injured two Israeli security guards in the illegal Ariel settlement
north of Salfit. The man, identified as Muhammad Zahran Abdul-Halim
Zahran, 22, was killed by forces on scene.
Thursday’s
deaths were the latest in a wave of violence that increased across the
occupied Palestinian territory in October and continued through
December. A total of 136 Palestinians were killed in hat period, Two Palestinians on Wednesday were shot dead
after they killed one Israeli and injured another in a stab attack at
the Jaffa Gate of the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem. Another
Israeli was also killed by live fire from Israeli border guards who
opened fire on the attackers. Both of the attackers were from
the Qalandiya refugee camp.